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Leaving Behind's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Composition | #6 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| Overall | #12 | 4.167 | 4.167 |
| Quality | #15 | 4.278 | 4.278 |
| Impression | #21 | 4.056 | 4.056 |
| Correlation to theme | #23 | 4.111 | 4.111 |
| Creativity | #38 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
Ranked from 18 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Description
Leaving Behind is imagined on a story driven (mostly adventure) game.
The game would be segmented in 3 distinct parts, in which the game would radically change the genre, art style and possibly the gameplay as well.
Plot corresponding to the soundtrack:
1st track - Leaving home behind
In a modern society, everything seems normal and constant. Yet for the protagonist, every place of the community only carries the scars he had. The community being agonizingly indifferent to his existence, he felt drowning into an irreversible anonymity. He decides to leave the city to run away from his future life of 'miserably ever after'.
The music illustrates the protagonist leaving his home, determined yet nostalgic. It also represents the 'main theme' of the soundtrack. Motifs are reused in further tracks to maintain a coherence. From the looping point, only the accompaniment remains in order to leave more room to the gameplay.
2nd track - Deep in the dark woods
In the woods, the protagonist starts learning to live by himself and with the nature. He also discovers that some others also fled the city for their own reasons, each one living by himself. It didn't take long for the protagonist to realize that these people are mostly hostile: many of them are banished from the civilisation for being dangerous, hunting people for entertainment.
The music describes the situation of the protagonist realizing the truth and trying to flee from the woods in the night without getting noticed.
The horn solo uses the motif of the 2nd section of the main theme(1st track), which were played by basson.
3rd track - Trans-morphosis
This is the part where the game would take a bold shift in the genre.
The protagonist is wounded and tired, he understands that he has been searching for an inexistant solution, as his life as a human being is fated to suffer.
At this point, the game would introduce a fantasy element: Either by hallucination or a real deus-ex-machina(such as a cosmic being), he is told to be able to leave his body to integrate himself into the cosmos, transcending the inevitable tragedy of his existence.
The music illustrates the last part of the game, where the protagonist let go his body in a lake, leaving his body to become a spirit under the starlight.
Notes on the piano are taken from the 1st motif of the main theme(played by cello), evoking that the protagonist has found his new 'stability'.
The soundtrack is entirely produced with VSTs with Logic and Sibelius(for note performer export on several lines).
Message from the artist:
Thank you for checking my entry! I really had fun writing the plot of my imaginary game, hope you like it :)
Theme:
How does it fit the theme?
The theme is interpreted in a metaphorical way.
Leaving Behind is about running away from the trauma(1st part), physical harms(2nd part) and eventually the existential crisis(3rd part) with a fantasy twist.
Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
https://soundcloud.com/pneumolife/sets/leaving-behind-ost-composing/s-wLwS5EUy2cK?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
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Comments
1) Beautiful strings and beautiful chords in the piano part. Very expressive.
2) Creepy atmosphere from the beginning. These horns were a great choice, then that woodsy percussion.
3) This made me uneasy in a way. Beautiful and yet dark. Nice use of nature sounds, too.
Thanks for sharing!
Really good work. Nice sound and composition. Very different approach since all of these pieces are quite subdue, most that I've listened to have had high energy elements. It's a nice change of pace. Good job!
I love Leaving Home Behind! It does really match the story you are describing. The way you contrast the color of struments who share a common base is really nice. It gave me similar vibes to how Zelda Breath of the wild music develops variations of their music material. The piano also made me remember some kingdom hearts themes.
Keep up the good work!
Very nice pieces, the sound is really clean and the atmosphere is very convincing! The sound of the piano is not bad at all, yet I am very critical on it! I will have to try Pianoteq too... Thank you!
Thank you! For the piano, ppl would in general more recommend sampled libraries like Keyscape or Garritan CFX for the ease of use and immediate realistic sound. Pianoteq appeals mainly(&especially) for pianists as it does react very musically like playing a real acoustic piano(although the touch of keyboard is not the same). But production wise, if you want to make Pianoteq sound more realistic, there's a need of some extra fiddling.
Leaving Home Behind - Wow. What a beautiful piece! It's a really interesting composition to listen to. Never static, always moving somewhere. There's so much beauty in how it changes over time. I love how it's sad, but it's not just sad for the sake of being sad. There are rays of hope and change. Amazing job! I love how expressive you made the violin sound.
Deep in the dark woods - Very nice. Definitely feeling alone in the woods on this one. I love the relatively minimal instrumentation on this one, but rich ambience.
Trans-morphosis - After the first two stellar pieces, I'm very curious what the next one will bring. I love how mysterious it starts. Again, such beautiful ambience. Love the little sparkles of piano.
Really impressive stuff man! It really felt like taking a journey through your game.
Thank you so much for your detailed feedback! I'm very happy to be able to share the world I've imagined with the music :)
Right off the bat, the interweaving melodies caught my attention! Really makes me think of the Hollow Knight OST as well as Breath of the Wild! Very high level composition and good mixing. I'd love to know what VSTs you use!
Thank you! I'm glad you have mentioned Hollow Knight. It is definitely the kind of game I would love to score one day!!!!
For the VSTs, nothing fancy: Spitfire mostly(chamber strings and tundra, symphonic woodwinds for horn solo), Cello solo in the 1st track is obviously good ol' Tina Guo lol. Pianoteq for piano, and for woodwinds melody line I just used the playback of noteperformer plugin of Sibelius. It does convincing legatos and phrasing without the necessity to program CCs, although the sound itself sounds less real compared to sampled library. I use it for woodwinds sometimes especially when i'm running out of time(I'm also way more comfortable with music notation than DAWs). Randy's prepared piano(finger mute in 2nd track and nail pizz on 3rd), Native instrument Noire piano for particle effect on the 3rd track. Temple block from Kontakt's factory library I believe, and chris heins solo viola and cello for effects in 2nd track. I think that's about it.
Oh, the 'pad' thing in 2nd track is also from Tundra(woodwinds).
Hi!!! I am very impressed so much. In "Leaving home behind" the sadness he feels, knowing that he has no other choice and the excitement of embarking on a new adventure is very good reflected. Then in "Deep in the dark woods" at the beginning, i feel the tension and sadness again. I think this is very special. Because you may can do it only scary but sadness is still going. The last one "Trans-morphosis" has a different ending... How did you make me feel the everything is about to end? In such a simple way? This is... Very successfull. Thank you for join this jam... I've been typing for 2 hours. tired.
Wonderful composition and arrangement. You managed to convey a very different atmosphere through your different tracks and each one really felt like a new chapter. Really great job! 👏
Amazing job! You have written some very haunting and beautiful music. My favorite track was "Deep in the dark woods", it has great ambience throughout.
Nicecly done, really minimalistic, beautiful piano/violin piece really "Twilight Princess" like. Awesome dissonance use in the second piece, its disturbing but at the same time peaceful and not agressive to listen to. I just wanted some low frequency so bad uuuuuuuuh other than that its well composed, great chord progressions nice arrangement. Really fits the kind of stuff I would make too.
The compositions really capture that dreary feeling of being alone by yourself. With the help of the titles, I can see a whole world being built by each instrument that plays. Each note furthers the story. In Deep in the Dark Woods, The anxious feeling of lonely and paranoia is high. Each track delicately tells a story without being bombastic. It's a patient soundtrack, and that's why I like it
Thank you! I have indeed imagined the whole game based on the concept of solitude and I'm very glad that it did reach you :)
I like your interpretation of the theme and I think you nailed the feeling you were going for!
Thank you! Glad you like my take on the theme :)